2011 Aprilia Tuono V4R APRC | First Ride

Phew what a day it’s been here in Valencia. I arrived at the launch hotel at 3 a.m. and after only a couple of hours sleep it was off to the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia for some brutal action onboard the all new, 160-horsepower Aprilia Tuono V4R APRC (Aprilia Performance Ride Control).

The Aprilia Tuono V4R is based on the Italian manafucturer’s race-breed RSV4 R, but you have with the Tuono is a naked V4 powered “superbike.”

This bike is brutal and despite trying to tear my arms off, giving me arm pump and a cramp in my left leg after hard braking this is undoubtedly the new top dog in this class.

The immensely powerful Aprilia V4 just pulls and pulls and this Tuono is something very special. It’s definitely not for the faint hearted but with the full APRC package it can be tamed.

The problem is that I didn’t want to tame it as I was having so much fun on the circuit using traction control level 1 rather than 6 which is standard set-up.

In the afternoon I tested the naked Aprilia on the roads surrounding Valencia and I’ve got to say that I prefer this bike on the circuit where you can use all that power.

The V4R is slightly more rev-hungry than it’s V90 predecessor, but when the power kicks in it really does kick in big time.

I used more traction control on the road and this added some safety to the ride on roads that sometimes suited the Aprilia Dorsoduro a lot more than the Tuono. But while on the street, comfort isn’t necessarily there. The seat is quite hard and not comfortable after a few miles.

As stated before, the Aprilia Tuono V4R APRC is not for the faint hearted; the Tuono is hardcore.